Orthodox Thought for the Day

ORTHODOX THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Saturday, November 29, 2014

St. John Chrysostom on thanksgiving

Wouldest
thou learn words of thanksgiving? Hearken unto the Three Children, saying, ‘We
have sinned, we have transgressed. Thou art righteous, O Lord, in all that thou
hast done unto us, because thou hast brought all things upon us by a true
judgment’ (Prayer of Azariah; Book of Daniel LXX). For to confess one’s own
sins, this is to give thanks with confessions unto God: a kind of thing which
implies one to be guilty of numberless offenses, yet not to have the due
penalty exacted. This man most of all is the giver of thanks.

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When, on a clear autumn night, I gaze at the clear sky - sown with numberless stars, so diverse in size yet shedding a single light - then I say to myself: 'Such are the writings of the Fathers!' When, on a summer day, I gaze at the vast sea - covered with a multitude of diverse vessels with their unfurled sails like white swan's wings, vessels racing under a single wind to a single goal, to a single harbor - I say to myself: 'Such are the writings of the Fathers!' When I hear an harmonious, many-voiced choir, in which diverse voices - in elegant harmony - sing a single Divine song, then I say to myself: 'Such are the writings of the Fathers! St. Ignatius Brianchaninov